Setting up your sequence in MailerLite

MailerLite sends a series of emails with an automation workflow. People join a group when they sign up on your form, and joining the group starts the workflow. Every step here comes from MailerLite's own help pages, linked at the end of each section. If a screen looks different, the linked page will be the most up to date.

Checked against MailerLite's help pages on 1 October 2026.

Before you start: the free plan

MailerLite's pricing page lists a free plan with up to 250 subscribers, 2,500 emails a month, 3 automations, 1 website and 1 landing page and 3 sign-up forms. It also says that on free accounts, "when the number of active subscribers exceeds the 250 active subscriber limit, sendings will be locked (campaigns + automation)."

A 5-email welcome series uses 5 sends per subscriber, so keep an eye on the monthly email limit as your list grows.

Sources: MailerLite pricing

Part A: Create your sign-up form

1. Go to Forms and open the Embedded forms tab.
2. Click Create form.
3. Give the form a name and choose Embedded form.
4. Select a subscriber group and click Continue. MailerLite calls this "this important step": it decides which group people join when they sign up. Create a new group for this sequence so the automation only reaches these people.
5. Edit the form: heading, text, fields and button text. Paste in the words from optin-page.md. Make sure there is a Name field, so your emails can greet people by name.
6. In the Settings tab you can add a privacy statement, GDPR marketing permissions, reCAPTCHA and a custom success page.
7. Set what people see after they sign up with the Success message option in the top navigation.
8. Install the form on your website with the embed code MailerLite gives you.

MailerLite's free plan also includes one landing page if you don't have a website. This guide doesn't cover building it; check this in your account.

[SCREENSHOT: the "Select a subscriber group" step]

Deliver your lead magnet

MailerLite suggests two ways: put a download link on the form's success page, or send it in the first email of an automation. Your first email already contains the lead magnet link. To link to a file you upload to MailerLite, highlight the text in the email editor, click the Link icon and choose Insert File (drag and drop editor) or Redirect to File (simple editor).

Sources: How to create an embedded form · How to send a freebie (lead magnet) to new subscribers

Part B: Build the email series (one email a day)

1. Go to the Automations page and click Create workflow. Choose to start from scratch.
2. From the Triggers tab in the left sidebar, drag Joins a group into the workflow. Pick the group from Part A and click Save.
3. Click the plus icon to add the first step. Under Actions, choose Send email.
4. In the right sidebar, enter the email subject, sender name and sender email address.
5. Click Design email, choose an editor and paste in email 1 (see Part C).
6. Click the plus icon under email 1. Under Rules, choose Delay and set it to 1 day.
7. Add email 2 with Send email, then another Delay of 1 day, and so on, in day order. No delay is needed after the last email.
8. When every email is in, click Activate at the top right.

Don't leave out the delays. MailerLite says that "if your workflow contains multiple email steps with no delay steps in between, your subscribers will receive all of the email steps at the same time."

[SCREENSHOT: a workflow with Send email and Delay steps alternating]

Test it. Sign up on your own form and check that email 1 arrives.

Sources: How to create an automation workflow · How to use automation steps

Part C: Paste in each email

Preview text. MailerLite's help pages on automation emails don't say where the preview text goes. MailerLite's blog says that in the drag and drop editor you click "the block at the very top of your email" to add or edit the preheader (another name for preview text). Check this in your account, especially if you use a different editor.

• Remove any "NEEDS YOUR REVIEW" note before pasting.
• Replace {{first_name}} (Part D) and {{LEAD_MAGNET_LINK}} as you go.

[SCREENSHOT: where the preview text goes in the email editor]

Sources: How to create an automation workflow · MailerLite blog: email preheaders

Part D: The first-name tag

Replace every {{first_name}} with:

{$name}

MailerLite says {$name} "inserts your subscriber's first name (if it's available)". Variables are case-sensitive, so type it exactly as shown.

If someone signs up without a name, use a fallback word:

{$name|default('there')}

So your greeting becomes Hi {$name|default('there')},

To insert a variable instead of typing it: in the drag and drop editor, double-click the text and choose the Variable icon. In the simple editor, use the + symbol or type /.

Sources: How to use variables in MailerLite

Part E: Can I import the emails from the CSV file?

No. We found no way in MailerLite's help pages to import email content from a CSV file. MailerLite's custom HTML editor has an Import HTML option that takes a ZIP file of HTML code, but nothing we found imports a list of emails. Copy and paste each email as shown in Part C.

Sources: How to use the custom HTML editor